I only have an observation to offer, not a brickbat or a solution.
Although I disagree with Syl Jones at times, I find most of his writing rich and moving. And I am a little (middle aged) white girl from the Deep South. Maybe that's why.
Anyhow, it seems to me that the more authentic issue ignored here on center stage is the tragic toll mental illness takes on people, sometimes entire communities. No one seems offended by Jones or the Strib (in earlier pieces) identifying Ms. Donald as probably mentally ill. She probably was, by all accounts, even her family's. And untreated, it sounds like. In this community - as in most across the country - very little can be done to compell a (suspected) mentally ill adult to seek and submit to medical assessment and treatment if he/she doesn't want to. Tragically, many serious mental illnesses impair not only one's judgment about the outside world, but also the ability to correctly assess one's own condition and actions. Sometimes it turns dangerous, even deadly, especially when weapons are at hand.
God only knows all the details of what happened that night at Horn Towers, but I think the real issue is what happens when mental illness turns lethal - regardless of the color or station in life of anyone involved.
Ann Berget
Kingfield
(Past Board Member of NAMI - National Alliance for the Mentally Ill)
